Two vacant AFC belts were claimed Saturday as ATT’s Mario Rinaldi took the heavyweight title and FFA’s Jorge Masvidal won the welterweight belt at the promotion’s seventeenth event, held at the Florida State University Gymnasium in Boca Raton, Florida.

Rinaldi doing a backflip after his win

Rinaldi dispatched Rob Smith, a relatively unknown fighter who started out impressive as he rushed in but later fell victim to Rinaldi’s ground game. Welterweight Masvidal’s victory was much closer despite an early accidental eye poke that blinded opponent Nuri Shakir in his left eye for most of the fight. Masvidal and Shakir traded punches and knees from the clinch for much of the fifteen minutes, but ground scoring was all Masvidal. In terms of damage done, Shakir scored a cut over the right eye of Masvidal in the first round while Masvidal had Shakir backpedaling at least twice under a hail of shots to the face. The turning point came when Shakir’s eye swelling closed from the accidental poke, taking him totally out of his game plan.

Shakir vs. Masvidal

Dustin Denes notched another victory, this time against Todd Carney, in a fight that should be no embarrassment to Carney. UFC vet Nick Thompson returned to AFC in a tough fight against Team Quest’s Chris Wilson – one of the more entertaining fights in AFC history — and Luis Palomino converted many spectators to fans as he explosively took out Luis Lilato in 1:23.

Denes looking for a Kimura on Carney

The real news from this show is the huge step forward AFC took in terms of production values. For starters, they switched from the boxing ring they have used since their inception to at 24-foot cage and lighting that would put most North American feeders shows to shame. Over 4,000 fans made this reportedly the largest show and an Internet broadcast probably reached even more around the world. AFC 18 is scheduled for August 26.